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Rutgers secondary bracing for its next big test with SMU's passing game

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Junior free safety Lorenzo Waters is confident that Rutgers' young cornerbacks will be up to the challenge on Saturday against an SMU passing attack that is averaging 55 passes per game.
(Jim O'Connor/USA TODAY Sports)

Dredging up memories of the opener at Fresno State isn’t something that anyone on Rutgers’ defense would normally welcome. But this week may be the exception even if, as linebacker Kevin Snyder admits, “I still have nightmares about that (game).”

What Snyder also knows is this: SMU’s pass-heavy offense is exactly the type of measuring stick the Knights’ improved defense – and maturing secondary – needs right now.

It’s a chance to find out how far both units have come since Derek Carr peppered them with 73 pass attempts in a 52-51 loss on Aug. 29.

Through a 1-3 start, the Mustangs’ run-and-shoot offense is averaging 55 pass attempts. No one expects them to alter that approach when Rutgers (3-1) makes its first-ever visit to the Dallas campus on Saturday in the AAC debut for both schools.

“Any time you play against a team that likes to pass it puts a big emphasis on the secondary play,” Waters said. “That’s what I’m excited about – for us to get this opportunity and this challenge. It’s a big deal.”

On a unit where youth is being served, Waters, a junior, is one of the steadying influences. But the cornerback positions will get even younger and greener this week with the announcement from coach Kyle Flood that junior Gareef Glashen will miss the next two games for “personal reasons.” He did not elaborate beyond that.

That leaves a corner rotation of redshirt freshman Ian Thomas, true freshmen Nadir Barnwell and Anthony Cioffi and fifth-year graduate transfer Lew Toler, who is in his first year in the program.

“I think we’ll have more success this week than we did against Fresno because I think (the corners) have gotten tougher in the way they play and better at the way they prepare,” said Snyder. “I think they’re now able to play more freely. It’s not as much `Oh, what’s my job?’ It’s more `I know my job now and I can just go out and play football.’ ”

Waters says the young corners have “less of a deer-in-the-headlights look from the first game.”

“They’re a lot tougher as far as setting the edge and playing receivers more physically,” he said. “They’re a tough group.”

Flood can see a marked difference in the corners from the opener, when Carr completed 52 passes for 456 yards and five TD passes. The attempts and completions were records by a Rutgers opponent.

“I think we are certainly more prepared,” Flood said. “I think when you play a team like Fresno … Fresno tested us in ways that are very hard to simulate in practice. We did the best we could to simulate it and it wasn't good enough. We needed to be a couple points better than we were and we weren’t.

“So now we get another opportunity to see where we are, and I think this will be another hurdle or another point in the season where we can say, `you know, we have improved.’ And how much we have improved, we won't know that until after the game on Saturday.”

One benefit the secondary has this time against Texas transfer Garrett Gilbert is SMU’s leaky offensive line, which allowed seven sacks last week and is ranked 120th nationally in sacks allowed.

So Gilbert is often under duress – which is more of a factor than it was with Carr because of SMU’s heavier reliance on a vertical passing game.